I love how you make yourself a victime. "As I forced myself through the first third of the series" from your blog mind you. Now I ask... Did the Toei Police come to your door, guns in hand, and go
GET ON THE MOTHER FUCKING COMPUTER AND WATCH THE FUCKING SHOW DO IT NOW
I think not. I mean that you wrote an entire blog entry about a toku that people enjoy is one thing, but you like some of the others that just go on and on about how deno sucks.... Or that it should end, well that is your opinions, and I am not a big deno fan, but I find all this **** damn funny. I mean if you don't like it ignore the show, ignore the movies, and go watch something else. I mean I swear no one is forcing you to do anything.
Some continue to watch shows they dislike so they can have an informed opinion on message boards. For instance:
"X Show was horrible."
"No, it wasn't! It got better! How many episodes did you watch?"
"The first episode."
"That's why you're wrong! You need to watch more before it gets good!"
Now, let's take this situation having slogged through the entire show!
"X Show was horrible."
"No, it wasn't! It got better! How many episodes did you watch?"
"The whole thing. It was horrible the whole way through."
"Well... you're wrong, and have no soul. And it's a kid's show."
See how different that was? (Not really)
If someone doesn't like Den-O, they don't like Den-O. As entertainment, it failed to hook them. It doesn't matter if they watched two episodes, or the entire thing. As serialized entertainment its job is to be enjoyable on a per episode basis and when taken as a whole. And with a continuing revamp, like tokusatsu, you probably won't enjoy every show. Some love Kuuga, and hate Kabuto. Some hate Agito, and love Hibiki. It happens.
I enjoyed it, though it wasn't my favorite. It's my girlfriend's favorite Kamen Rider. I do think they need to give it a rest movie-wise as it risks overshadowing the Kamen Rider they're currently airing at any time. I'd say keep up the animated shorts, and perhaps have the Imajin continue as hosts for that block of shows, but give it two years of so, and then revisit the series. That said, perhaps they had a script drop into their laps for Den-O that was so amazing that they had to make another one. We never know. Calm is needed on both sides.